Kyoko Sakura
Kyoko Sakura (佐倉 杏子 Sakura Kyōko?) Voiced by: Ai Nonaka (Japanese), Lauren Landa (English) : Kyoko is a veteran magical girl who comes to the city following Mami's death. Her distinguishing features include long red hair, fangs, and a voracious appetite, almost never being seen without food. She came from a poor church family, and used her wish so that people would listen to her father's preaching; when her father learned of this, however, he went mad and killed everyone in his family aside from Kyoko. As such, Kyoko decided only to use her magic for herself from this point on, since using it for others will only cause despair. Having grown up in a poor family, she often has to steal food and hates people who waste it, a logic she also applies to grief seeds, as she only goes after fully grown witches. : Kyoko has been a magical girl much longer than the others, and thus is more skillful; she wields a spear which can extend itself, split into multiple sections, and produce a ball at the end of a chain, which can constrict and hit others at the same time. She also has the ability to put up barriers to protect others or keep them from interfering. She initially clashes with Sayaka, but after learning the truth about soul gems, she sympathizes with her and tries to help her. This is partially because Sayaka reminds Kyoko of her past self, as she too had made a wish for another person's sake and tried to fight for justice. Thus, she wants to stop Sayaka from making what she believes is the same mistake and advises her to live a life of selfishness. Even though Sayaka thanks Kyoko and admits that she misunderstood her, Sayaka refuses to abandon her ideals of justice. : After Sayaka becomes a witch, Kyoko becomes determined to save her and restore her to normal. In the end, though, Kyoko becomes tired of her pain, gives up her previous ideals and abandons her outlook of self-preservation, and chooses to destroy herself along with Oktavia, in an attempt to both find peace in death and make sure that Sayaka will not die alone, by overloading her soul gem to create a massive explosion that kills them both. However, Kyoko's sacrifice leaves only Homura and the potential contract Madoka to face off against Walpurgisnacht, which ends up in Homura being defeated and Madoka contracting. : In a previous timeline, she was killed by Mami, who was driven to kill them all in a desperate attempt, after learning that they would all eventually become witches. : In the final timeline, Kyoko survives, and grieves over Sayaka's death in battle, lamenting how they had "finally become friends". : In the ending of Rebellion, Homura rewrites reality so that Kyoko lives with Sayaka and has a more kinder, cheerful, yet slackish personality, as a result of her better life, instead of being selfish and vicious to others. : Prior to the storyline, Kyoko was previously Mami's partner and also possessed illusionary magic gained from her wish of deception, allowing her to make copies of herself. However, following the death of her family, she subconsciously lost her illusion magic and decided to be more selfish in her outlook, ending her partnership with Mami. This relationship is explored in the third drama CD, "The Farewell Story", the PSP game, and the Different Story manga. In the PSP game, her witch form is Ophelia, the wǔdàn witch, depicted as a horse rider with a candlestick for a head.